Race and Rain, right on.
Tue, 04/20/2010 - 13:12 — Randy Overman
We had several, uh, "wonderful" days in Fort Worth. I'll let you know all about it. In sections.
I'll use the comment section (see below) to fill you in on the daily happenings. A lot happened (and didn't happen) and it would be unwise to put them all in one report since it would take many minutes to read.. and you know how I like to treat you to a story.
But to give you a teaser, we had a great soaking time. Got to meet some wonderful people and one with newfound lifesaving abilities (think IRS building in Austin that made the news). Lots of autographs and some video"graphs" as well.
Check back soon for more details.
Comments
Friday's adventures
Ok, so we intended on getting up at 6 or so and head out by 8 at the latest. Everything was pretty much packed. But it didn't work out quite that way.
Azucena. Yeah that one. She's to be blamed for everything now. We got up early enough, but she still had to finish stuff for school. The dvd burner in her computer was not burning her lessons. She even tried a new portable burner and that didn't work. She thinks it has something to do with all this MS crap with lightscribe and stuff. With a regular dvd, she was able to burn a lesson using the portable from the laptop. But, one lesson done with 3 more to go wasn't looking too great. For those that are in the dark about lessons, Azucena teaches two different 6th grade math classes (2 regular and 1 pre-ap). She has made it a mission that when it's vacation time, she will tape her upcoming lessons at home, then burn them to a dvd, then turn them over to the sub teacher and tell them to hit PLAY.
While she was working on the last lesson (45 minute lesson recorded = another 45 minutes to burn). I ran a few errands for us and for her. She was finally done and we could start heading out around 10. BUT... we had to drive to Taylor to drop off the lessons for Friday and Monday. This means 20 more minutes to Taylor, 10 minutes in Taylor, then 10 minutes back to Hutto to catch Toll 130 to IH-35 north of Georgetown and on to Fort Worth.
I don't remember when we got to the race track but it was about 2:30 or so. We left rain in Austin and so far, it was just overcast at TMS. We unpacked and pitched a tent. Lovely site we had. We chose the newly established Family campground. We were essentially trapped. Surrounded by a wire fence. One vehicle way in and one pedestrian way in. But, it really wasn't all that bad. This kept all the rowdy people out, including those of the fairer sex from walking around the area at lunchtime bare to the waist. Yeah I know. I was missing out, but I would have missed it anyway, that's just my luck.
It was after 7 when we were settled in, but we went to the track to walk around the trailers to see what, if anything, was really available. Once again, Hendricks goes all out with their merchandise, along with 99% of the other teams. But Red Bull.. now that's another story. They could make lots of money by having better products and personalized. What fan doesn't want to spend $150 on a coat with their driver plastered all over it? I've got a coat, several shirts, sweats, blankie, gym bag, etc etc... Red Bull offers sweaters and tshirts and nothing they have offers us with the drivers' name. I was able to get one decent shirt, but they really don't provide much except for unlimited red bull drinks. Ok, enough about my issues with Red Bull leaving their fans in the cold. I wanted to contact them, but couldn't figure out how. Oh, Azucena has 2 coats from the Terry Labonte era, and another one when Vickers was with Hendricks. So are we afraid to donate money to the cause? I think not.
It didn't start raining until after we went to bed. But rain it did. Light rain and heavy rain. The heavy rain leaked in the tent in several places. So we woke up to a pretty wet floor a wet foot and a wet gym bag that soaked through. Since I don't sleep too much while camping, I knew what was going on. And yes, it was my foot that got wet. I made it worse by not taking the socks off so it stayed wet. Not really soaked, but wet just the same.
Azucena slept most of the way to the race park, then slept through the rain. If only I could sleep half as much as she does.
Next up: Meeting a real live Austin life-saving hero.
Saturday's wet happenings
Saturday morning started well enough, if you want to figure in the wet tent floor and various wet items that were dry when we went to bed.
I forgot to mention that on Friday, one of the local tv stations was using the campsite next to us as a backdrop for a report on the new Family Campground. Azucena and I along with <<insert name here>> were way in the background. If you were watching, and I'm assuming you weren't, you would have seen me taping up their flag a few times after it tried to fall over.
<<insert name here>> (so, I forgot) would be what you call a distant relative in school terms. She use to work with the principal that hired Azucena at Taylor Middle School. She herself is an Assistant Superintendent at Roanoke, I think. Azucena will have to update my knowledge.
Ok, even though it was wet, we were able to enjoy fajitas for breakfast. What were you expecting? Bacon and eggs? Coffee would have been nice.
After awhile, we drove and parked close to the track, walked to the showers and headed to the infield. If you ever get a chance for Garage Passes, Hot or Cold, get them. They are to die for. Although it was drizzling or raining throughout the day, we were not dismayed. We visited the Nationwide garage first and didn't find much going on. Their race was about to get rained out, and there were better things to do than stand around and get wet. We did manage a few autographs.
We headed over to the the big boys garage and I'll give you one guess where we went first. Yep, Brian Vickers. He was incognito, but he was kind enough to sign our flag (a checkered flag we bought to get a mess of autographs) and a few bios through his current agent, the Spotter, who also gave us an autograph. We then moved up and down and around getting what we could whether it be crew chief, driver or sports announcer.
About half way through, we came across Kevin Conway's trailer. He's a rookie in the Sprint and is sponsored by ExtenZe. All I'm going to say is if he were to sign his bios and Azucena passed them out as rewards, she may have a parent/teacher conference and that needs to be avoided. We hung around awhile and chatted with the gal who kept him in line and on time, and good friends of his, a Dr. and his wife. Sorry, I don't remember names. But the name I do remember is Robin De Haven. Robin, if you are reading this, it was a pleasure to meet you. Not only for your heroic efforts, but just you yourself. For those that don't click on links, Robin was the guy that helped save several people at the Austin IRS building that got dive bombed by a plane. And yes, we got his autograph as well. We also went walking around introducing him to other racing teams so he could be more well known.
We continued on to other trailers and a few down was Travis Kvapil who, while talking to Azucena about his hometown of Janesville, WI (her parents' hometown too), signed about 30 bios handed to him by his "on the spot agent", probably a tire changer. After that, we got what we could and followed the news crew to find more, mostly crew chiefs.
We tried to hook up with our new friends from the NASCAR Championship Banquet, Amber and Carrie, but they were way over there on the other side of the fence and we were here and never quite got to say hi in person. We left the garage and walked around outside by the trailers to see what they had to offer and the rain poncho from Red Bull was just the thing Azucena needed.
Now, my beef is that the poncho was from Red Bull racing. Not the 83 team and definitely not Brian Vickers. Red Bull has about 50 items in their solo trailer and 90% says only Red Bull. 8% will have 83 or 84 and the rest will actually name the drivers. A sweatshirt and the rain poncho are about the most expensive things they have and they are Red Bull. Oh wait, they do sell Die Cast which I should have remembered since she got hers signed by Vickers. My bad.
Let's compare to the Jeff Gordon trailer. They have what, 10 trailers with over 100 items to choose from. Maybe 1% is Hendricks Racing. 99% has 24/Jeff Gordon. They sell coats, chairs, blankets, everything you can think of. Would Azucena be willing to spend $150 on an 83 Brian Vickers racing coat? On a teachers salary? Oh yea, in a heartbeat.
Ok, so we never met up with Amber and family, but we were able to meet up with our old friend Robert. I mean old because we've know him for several years, not because he's older that we are. I'm getting old because I can't remember where we met. It was sort of Italian. Not Macaroni Grill. Anyway, we chatted for awhile and had a great time. He did invite us to his place if we wanted a warm bed to sleep on, but we declined.
We headed back and went to bed with it drizzling overhead.
Know what's worse than sleeping in a tent while it's raining and not knowing if it's going to drip on your head? Having to get up in the middle of the night and walking gingerly through puddles and mud to use the bathroom.
I'd be in big trouble if I didn't mention that Governor Perry was in the Garage as well. Yes, she got his picture and he autographed the flag. She was happy, what can I say.
Sunday is Saturday all over again
Yep, rain again. Garage visit again. Same o, same o.
Woke up to rain. Azucena hid in the truck to study some while I fixed breakfast. This time it was fajitas. Wait. That was yesterday. Sorry, but I did say Sunday repeats Saturday. We did the park and shower and head to the garage thing AGAIN. It was raining AGAIN. It was still muddy. It was still wet, and I be darn, it was not any better than the day before.
Ok, we get to the garage and the Nationwide side is really deserted (I just went through our pictures and nothing from Nationwide that I can see). Oh well, they got rained out yesterday and may - MAY race today if the rain goes away, but highly unlikely.
Got more drivers autographs. Got to see the Governor talk to Robin - oh wait, that was yesterday, my bad. Got to see Robin again and get his picture. He was also presented a check by ExtenZe for his heroism. Got Jr.'s crew chief autograph. Almost got Jeff Gordon. You know how I said we'd go where the cameras were? Well, someone was interviewing him and there was another interview after that. I figured I had about 20 minutes or so before the 2nd interview was done and he'd, hopefully, give autographs. Not a lot of us there so I thought the chances were pretty good. The first interview wrapped up and you blinked and he was gone. The second interview took place INSIDE the friggin trailer. On to the next. Ryan Newman gave Azucena a hard time. She wanted a few autographs, he looked hurt, she started to walk away and he said to come back. Something like that. My story, she can re-tell it if she wants.
Then Jimmy Johnson's crew chief, Chad Knaus, stepped out with a determined walk, but agreed to sign and walk. Only we didn't have anything ready to sign, so we missed him for the 2nd time. We got Kevin Harvick after he got done with his interview, but you had to walk with him or else miss out. Yes, we stopped by Red Bull trailers again and still didn't see Vickers, but she chatted away anyway and got to drink more Red Bull. As much as I'd love to have one, I'd have the worst migraine of my life. They have 80mgs of caffeine compared to 24 for coke.
Ok, a few more autographs, and we met up with Amber, Carrie, their dad and brother. Their dad has a vague resemblance to our dentist. We talked for awhile before it was time to head out.
As we were walking back to the tent, we ran into Robin again as he was heading home to Austin. Now, imagine 150,000 people at a race. Ok, maybe 100,000 since it was raining. There are several parking lots with thousands of cars in each. What are the chances of meeting up with someone who is pulling out of the parking lot, just as you are walking by and he is this wonderful hero you've been meeting up with the past few days? Don't know, but I know it 's astronomical. We chatted for awhile and his great news was he got a phone number. Yep, he met one of the Sprint Girls (Azucena can correct me if I'm wrong) and she lives in North Austin. But he couldn't stay for his big debut. He had to fly out on Monday to DC for more accolades. He's already been given proclamations from the Texas legislature, now it's the US version. I know about proclamations. I got one when I was in the McDonald's All American Band. A lot of Whereas's. But they are nice and you can frame them for others to drool over. So we said our goodbyes and promised to stay in touch.
Because traffic was busy, Azucena walked to camp and I drove. She beat me by about an hour, but then I did stop and say hi to former camp neighbors. Chatted with them for about 15 minutes. While I was walking back to camp, Azucena was visiting our new neighbors and getting toasty (had to leave the truck near our former neighbors because all lanes headed out. I'd have to leave the race track, drive a few miles to the next exit and turn around, which would take another 1 to 2 hours. Besides, Azucena got all toasty, she can pick it up before dinner and meet with our former neighbors as well.).
Later, with suggestions from neighbors, we went to Babe's in Roanoke. You get your choice of Chicken or Chicken and they bring everything else out. Cream Corn, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy, Biscuits. Mmmm. I had the chicken. Azucena had chicken. Ok, I'm kidding. Our choices were chicken or chicken fried steak. Both were great. And they messed with your mind. If you had to use the bathroom, you could stare right at it without seeing it. Sort of a secret door in the wall.
After dinner, we did some clothes. I needed to dry out my coat and hat.
We got back, took a late shower to avoid the lines in the morning, then headed back home to sleep. By now, it not only was raining, but it was getting cold. All day/night, the truck said 51 degrees. I know good and well it was broken and it should have been in the 40's. But when we got back on Monday, I checked the web and it was indeed 51 and felt like 51, but I know it was colder, because I was shivering.
Good news. It quit raining by about midnight and stayed quit raining. But it was still cold.
Monday's Doubleheader
All day Monday, it didn't rain one bit, but it was way overcast and chilly.
We headed to the garages again. This time we got some drivers to give a small pep talk to the Taylor Ducks. I think the Red Bull crew was trying to give themselves a pep talk. They didn't do too good in qualifying and the race turned ugly for them. We even got some NASCAR officials to give a pep talk. And we finally got Chad Knaus' autograph.
NASCAR decided that if you had a ticket to either race, you were invited to both races. This also meant that a lot of people were going to be sitting on laps. But you can always find another seat anywhere you want so unless you were stubborn, it wouldn't have been a problem. We stayed in the lower level to watch Jeff Gordon dominate the race until he got taken out with 20 laps to go. So we left and went to visit Amber and family.
We said hi, chatted with a few neighbors and hung around for about 1/3 of the Nationwide race. We missed saying by to Amber, but that wasn't her fault. Azucena was taking pictures and I wasn't paying attention to anything but her lovely face, so they waved and said goodbye and we ignored them.
And Amber, I would have texted more, but Azucena's phone ran out of juice around 10am. I had two batteries and both ran out of juice by 4pm. So I'm terribly sorry we didn't get to do more. If we didn't have the garage passes, then we definately would have visited a few hours more. Maybe at the fall race we can hook up again.
We also were suppose to have a photo shoot with Bank of America, but for some reason, it never panned out. Could have been our phones were dying or they forgot, or the rain made it a moot point. But we are not upset. They have previous pictures, we hope, if they need them. I'm sure it would be for their advertising.
We finished packing when we got back to camp and since traffic wasn't too bad, we headed out. The quickest way was to go north on 35, take the next exit, then head south. I'm not sure what time we left, but it was about 10pm when we got home. I thought we left at 6, but that would have made it a 4 hour drive and well, with the stop and go all through Fort Worth, I guess it was about 4 hours.
We have pictures that we'll get posted soon.
Azucena and I are still catching up on the sleep department. Azucena, though mostly caught up with school has a LOT of grading to do this weekend. Hopefully she'll get it done in time.
Our next outing is the first weekend of June. Taylor has finals that weekend, so I may go up on Thursday and set up and she'll meet me there on Saturday to watch the IRL race and Danica. In November, we'll have the Truck, Nationwide and Sprint races on Thurs, Fri and Sat. We'll see what she can schedule for that weekend. We might split up again, who knows.
Well, thanks for taking time to read all this. Hope you enjoyed it.